A do-it-yourself guide for getting rid of just about anything.

Best Ways to Get Rid of Bats

Modified on July 17, 2016

There are a lot of questions about how to get rid of bats, how to trap bats, and even how to poison bats. These questions surprise us because bats, as much as spiders, are excellent examples of nature’s own pest control. Bats are primarily nocturnal feeders, and since most pests like mosquitoes and moths come out in the evening, well, guess who’s on the specials menu at the Flying Rodent Café?

Still, bats aren’t exactly the best house guests, either; bats are considered to be vectors (biology geek talk for “real good hosts”) for a number of human communicable diseases like rabies, SARS, Henipavirus, West Nile Virus, and, according to the folks at Wikipedia, even the Ebola Virus. So, There are some reasons why people might be wondering about how to control bat populations, but they’re not very good reasons considering that the actual number of cases where disease has been spread from bats to humans are about as scarce as children who enjoy piano lessons (Sorry, Mrs. Johnson).

Handling Bats

I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but don’t pick up dead or sick bats. Only .05% of bats have rabies, and those that do will tend to look very disoriented or unable to fly. Do not under any circumstances handle a bat that can’t fly. Of the few rabies cases reported every year in the U.S., most of them are because of a bat bite. If you find a bat that can’t fly, or a member of your family has been bitten or scratched by a bat, call an animal control officer immediately.

Best Ways to Get Rid of Bats

If you have a bat in your house it’s a good idea to get all of the family into one room, close the door, and then open every window and door in the rest of the house to allow the bat to escape on its own. Don’t worry too much about the family part; they tend to do this themselves albeit with a lot of shrieking and commentary about the location of the bat. If this doesn’t solve matters, keep reading.

If the bat doesn’t leave your house under its own power, it’s time for you to help the bat out. Get a pair of thick leather gloves and a fishing net. I think you know what to do next, so once you capture the bat, bring it outside and be very careful when removing it from the net. Bats, like the cowards who’ve holed themselves up in the other room, are very delicate creatures.

If your bat problem is more serious than the occasional midnight scramble, finding them where they’re infiltrating your house is my next suggestion. Once you’ve found where they sleep, what you’ll want to do is wait until late evening when all the bats are out feeding and plug that hole up real good. Chances are you’ll have solved your bat problem with that simple task, but just in case there’s a couple stragglers, unplug the hole again at dusk to let them out and replug it after a couple of hours or so. Note that you will want to do this in the spring because bats have pups in the fall, and you don’t want to trap baby bats in your house. First they will die, and then they will stink. And then there will be uncomfortable questions about who was murdered in your house.

If bats are roosting outside of your house in a place you’d rather they didn’t, then a can of dog/cat repellent is a good thing to pick up. Wait to apply the repellent to the area until all of the bats are out feeding, and spray all of the immediate surfaces generously. Whatever you do, don’t spray the bats directly with the repellent. You’re better off attending the Running of the Bulls wearing nothing but red–and that should be left to very macho but very stupid, young Spaniards. We’d recommend Keep Off sold at Amazon.

If cat/dog repellent doesn’t solve your bat problem, then putting up fiberglass insulation in those places where you don’t want bats roosting would be my next piece of advice. Fiberglass doesn’t just irritate our skin, it also irritates bats’ skin to no end. Don’t go overboard or anything. A thin layer of insulation should keep the bats away.

Professional Bat Control Management

There’s no such thing as a bat trap–at least none that can be deployed by an amateur (that’s you). Your best bet for getting rid of bats that you can’t seem to control is to call a professional in to do the job for you. Professional exterminators–I mean pest management professionals–know what they’re doing and they’ll get the job done right. The only surefire way to get rid of a bad bat problem is to trap the bats and safely release them a good distance from your home–a very good distance. So, go online and find some professional pest control providers, or go ahead and call your local pest control professionals and get an estimate done. You may want to read this before you do that, though.

Alternative Bat Control

Bat Houses are a good idea, if not because bats eat a lot of insects, then because it gives the bats a place to roost other than in your home. Now, I’ve given you a number of suggestions for getting rid of bats, but trust me on this: bats are a good way to get rid of other pests–pests that really do drink your blood. You can either build them yourself, or order them from Amazon, like the Looker Products Triple Chamber Bat House.

Sodium lamps, used for outdoor lighting, tend to attract fewer bugs. Fewer bugs means fewer predators that feed on bugs, like bats. Replacing your traditional light bulbs with sodium lamps should help reduce the number of bats feeding near your home.

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COMMENTS

November 18, 2016 at 8:40 am

Namratasays:

Hi Betsy,
Thank you so much for your response. I did opened the doors and windows and I guess the bat left my premises as I haven’t seen it since three days now. But it definitely has made its residence somewhere on the outside walls of my adobe as I can still hear them roosting. But that’s something that I don’t mind till the time they are not INSIDE. ☺.

November 17, 2016 at 9:38 pm

Betsy Fabersays:

Hi Namrata,

Mosquito repellent probably doesn’t work for bats – you generally need to capture and release them or try to open the windows and get them to leave themselves. Under no circumstances should you handle a dead or sick bat with your bare

November 16, 2016 at 8:04 pm

Namratasays:

Hello Eric,
A bat entered my room a day back, tried a few of your suggested ways to get it out. I had mosquito/cockroach repellent spray at home so I even sprayed that. Although I didn’t see it today, but I still feel its hiding somewhere. I can hear the rooting. Is it possible that it might still be there? One more question does the mosquito repellent spray works for bats as well?

I went out and looked at the shutter yesterday during daylight and, though I couldn’t see for sure, there appeared to be 8 or 10 bats behind it. I went out after dark and they were all gone, so the youth had apparently reached flying age. I had pulled all the shutters off the porch earlier except for the one where the bats were roosting and the two on either side of it. Seeing that all the bats were out feeding, I pulled the rest of the shutters off. This morning I went out to see if the bats had returned and they had not. I cleaned up their mess and will leave the shutters off for a while and when I put them back (or more likely will use this as an opportunity to get new shutters as the old ones were fading anyway), I will make sure they are tight against the house. So, for anyone else with bats roosting behind a shutter, removing the shutter seems to be a good way to get them to leave. Just do it after dark while they are out feeding.

August 12, 2016 at 8:45 am

Timothysays:

I don’t see where anyone has ever suggested simply removing the shutters as a way of getting rid of bats that are nesting behind them. We just now have had some bats take up residence behind one of our shutters (or at least, we just now noticed them). Based on some droppings, they had apparently tried the shutter two down from the one where they now reside and must not have liked it. They do, however, seem to like their current shutter home. It is maternal season so there are young bats in there that cannot fly, but as soon as they can, I will remove the shutter. I have already removed all the other shutters. They selected the one where they are now it seems because it was slightly loose and they could get behind it. The other one where they started was also slightly loose but not as much. Once I’ve removed the shutter where they are nesting, I will leave all the shutters off for a time and then replace them with ones that are secure. I will also go ahead and put some mothballs behind them just to help repel any bats who remember their old home. If this is all successful, I’ll let you all know.

Hi just came home from camping to fing bat poop all over my patio which is fourth floor all curtains and bamboo blinds ! The curtains puddle on the carpet moved corner curtain and there was 4 sleeping freakin freaked me out went yelling into condo never went out yet please this just freaks me out !!! Poop all over and streaks of something going down patio door ! This is just disgusting I’m to scared to scare them away !! I was only gone 4 doors have never had this problem before ! What about leaving containers of Amonia or bleach ! Just found them late after noon when got home wanted to open blinds and curtains found all the poop and like I said moved a end curtain and their they were please help can’t afford a professional

July 25, 2016 at 2:50 am

suzysays:

Bat poo all down the walls of my double storey house. have removed all berries that i possibly can from surrounding areas. their poo is impossible to remove, sugar soaping the walls daily and scrubbing removes some particles but like paul romano, above repainting is the only way to successfully hide it. have thought of painting the wall maroon, but need to remove these bats. have tried flags, cds hanging in trees etc., all to no avail. am at my wits end. PLEASE HELP

Roger, awesome! Thanks for the tip! The best part is that no bats were harmed!

June 25, 2016 at 6:55 pm

Roger Elowitzsays:

I was having a problem with what I thought were chipmunk droppings. They accumulated on my front porch under windows. Animal repellent spray didn’t work. An exterminator said it wasn’t chipmunks but rather, bats. He claimed they were holed up behind my window shutters which are nailed to the sides of the upstairs and downstairs windows… more decorative than functional. The exterminator wanted several hundred dollars to clear them out. I thanked him and set about my own system of getting rid of them. In the late morning I’d stand under the windows with a garden hose that had a “jet” spray function so that the tight spray of water could reach the upstairs window shutter louvers. After less than a minute of spraying a bat would come flying out and never came back to that shutter. He (or she) did return to a different window shutter (as evidenced by the droppings underneath) and that shutter got the water jet spray treatment and bye-bye bat.
Seems that bats, sleeping during the day… don’t like direct sprays of water while they sleep. You probably don’t either. I recommend this system for it’s cheapness and efficacy.

Roni, leaving the lights on might actually make it worse, as the lights would attract more bugs for the bats to eat. But yeah, if you put up a bat house, it might do the trick. Check out this guide on installation.

May 30, 2016 at 7:23 pm

Ronisays:

I have a question… There is (a) bat or bats that roost in my doorway at night and feast. It’s quite gross but two things, first I can’t sleep with the outside lights on, and second I don’t really mind except for the mess. If I get a bat motel and put it somewhere will the bat stop roosting there? Also, does it have to be up high? Thanks:)

Laura, first of all, “flying rodent” is a figure of speech, everyone knows bats aren’t rodents. You’re not special. Secondly, no one cares. If there’s a bat flying around your bedroom at night, you’re gonna try to get rid of it. No one is advocating hurting bats, here. I think they’re incredible animals, but I don’t want them living in my house. Go troll someone else’s page.

May 10, 2016 at 4:46 pm

Laurasays:

First of all, bats are not rodents – not even closely related. Secondly, the recommendations on this page are illegal in many countries. In the UK and most countries in mainland Europe, bats and their roosts are protected by law; to exclude bats from a building without a licence is punishable by a fine or even a prison term.

We had bats above the ceiling in our dock. It was amazing to watch them come out to feed at dusk, and they did cut down noticeably on the mosquito population, but the mess and smell were too great for us to coexist peacefully. Tried lights, sound, moth balls, you name it. Bat houses were a waste of time and lumber. The old dock was too porous for caulk to be effective, though we gave that a shot, too. Finally hubby chopped/cooked/strained/created a jalapeno based liquid and coated their roosting areas with it using a jumbo squirt gun (wear gloves and eye protection). That worked, and we re-treated the area every spring before they arrived until they gave up and stopped coming back. The concoction didn’t smell that bad, with the suspended ceiling between us and it, and we didn’t use the dock much in early spring anyway. Took several years for them to stop coming, though.

Abdullah, thanks for the tip! Though I sure hope you waited until after they were all gone to plug that hole…

September 19, 2015 at 1:46 am

Abdullahsays:

I was just before sunset they started to come out. It was just like an alien spaceship launching saucers to attack Earth. My wife and I counted 100+ bats in a small hole. So, I tried the plugging the hole up. It was amazingly successful.

Dennis, that’s gross. Is there anyway you could attach something like bird spikes in that spot? Not sure if it would work, but it might be worth a shot.

August 22, 2015 at 11:29 am

Dennissays:

Bats
come to one spot under the breezway and bring scorpions to eat and leave a bunch pinchers in one area and some kind of crap juice all over the wall in that one spot. it’s like fast food take out, pick up your meal than take it to the tables to eat.

Before doing anything drastic, try this: leave the porch light on (or put a lamp out there) and put a radio out there set to talk a talk radio station. Keep the volume up and do this for a few nights. If it does the trick, keep it up for a few nights more. Give this a shot and let me know how it goes. If it doesn’t do the trick, let me know that, too, and we’ll move on from there.

July 9, 2015 at 10:13 am

Patsays:

I have the same problem as Penny. I have a bat that roosts on my front porch nightly. He leaves bat poop on my porch. I have checked the attic, and have none in the attic. I have used dog/cat repellant regularly and it has worked good until lately. I think the bat is ammune to it now because when I sprayed it before, it worked for several nights. Now when I spray in the evening, I find bat poop the next morning. Is there anything else I can do to keep this bat off my porch?

Penny, have you confirmed that they’re not getting up into the attic? And by that I mean, have you actually gone up into the attic during the day with flashlights and looked everywhere they could possibly hide? Also, by “evidence” do you mean bat poop or are you seeing them or both?

May 17, 2015 at 5:57 pm

Pennysays:

we have bats that come to the corner of our front porch. I seen the evidence in the corners by the front door. Never see them. We have checked to see if they are getting into the attic somehow. We have caulked. Hung moth ball and steel wool. They come back every spring. They are back. What can we do.

As much as I hate to say it, I think you’ve already found the best solution…

July 30, 2014 at 3:47 pm

paul romanosays:

Need advice on how to get rid of bats. They roost in a palm tree in front of my house. Too high to reach with an extention ladder. Every night they splatter the front of my house with ???? maybe bat {poop}, maybe something else. Does not wash off unless I take the paint off too. I have repainted 4 times. Can’t keep doing that. At night all exterior lights are off and the curtains are closed to cut down on bug traffic. I appreciate animals and have no beef with bats if they don’t {poop} on my house. Beautiful palm tree but I may have to cut it down to get rid of my bat problem. Any other suggestions??